


All That's Best of Dark and Bright

by Aaronlisa



Category: Dracula & Related Fandoms, Dracula - Bram Stoker
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Mental Health Issues, Victorian
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-22
Updated: 2013-12-22
Packaged: 2018-01-05 14:28:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1095042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aaronlisa/pseuds/Aaronlisa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jonathan travels to Eastern Europe in order to make his career before he is to marry Mina Murray. The journey results in his unmaking.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All That's Best of Dark and Bright

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RobberBaroness](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobberBaroness/gifts).



> The title of the story comes from Lord Byron's poem "She Walks in Beauty."

Her pale hand grips his rougher and larger hand with surprising strength, if he didn't know better he would find it difficult to believe that she was gravely ill. He has known from the moment he first laid eyes on her that he would do anything that she asked of him. Even if the dream of making her his wife was nothing more than a pipedream. So he kneels down beside her bed and waits for her request. 

"Please Quincey," Lucy begins, her voice drawn and tired. 

"Anything my dear girl, all you need do is ask," Quincey promises her. 

The pale woman gives him a wan smile. "I wish for you to accompany Mina on her journey to collect her finance. I fear for her safety." 

Without Lucy even voicing it, Quincey realizes that the lovely girl is afraid not only for her friend's physical safety but for her reputation. Although he doesn't quite understand what could be so ruinous to a woman's reputation for her to travel to her fiancé. He does understand that England is nothing like America though. He nods his agreement swiftly although it pains him to be away from Lucy in her illness. 

"Of course, sweet girl," Quincey agrees. 

Lucy grips his hand even tighter and her smile turns into a rictus of pain. For a moment, he hesitates and almost recants his promise. 

"You must promise me though Lucy that you will recover, that health will once again make your cheeks pink. I wish to have time to convince you that Arthur is unworthy of you." 

She laughs, a pale imitation of her earlier laughter before the illness. 

"Of course, my darling Quincey." 

They both know that her promise is fated to be an empty one. She is ill and Quincey doubts that even Jack's old mentor will be able to save Lucy. He wishes to be selfish and insist that he stay by her beside but as he watches her shut her eyes as she gasps for breath he knows that he cannot be. 

If Lucy desires him to accompany Wilhelmina Murray to the Buda-Pesth to collect her ill fiancé then he shall.

* * *

 

Quincey Morris is a man of the world, out of Lucy's three suitors he is probably the only one who truly understands how it works. He has seen things that neither Arthur Holmwood or Jack Seward could imagine. Yet England with her rigid rules confuse him. How can a young woman who is betrothed engage in scandalous behaviour simply by travelling to join her fiancé? Europe is civilized while there are still parts of the West that are rough and uncivilized yet in America, Miss Murray would be considered to be a woman of strong character for doing what is necessary. 

Despite his feelings about the subject, Quincey intends to keep his promise to Lucy. Even if his dream of making her his wife was nothing more than a very lovely pipe dream. He knew even as he entered her orbit, even as he kneeled upon one knee and pleaded with her to become his wife that it was something that would never see fruition. There is a chasm that separated their worlds. Lucy would have withered away had she accepted his proposal. 

He packs a few things before rushing to meet Miss Murray. Quincey suspects that if given a chance, the head strong young woman would leave on her own without him. He does not understand who Miss Murray and his Lucy have become such close friends when they are so different. 

* * *

Wilhelmina Murray waits at the train station for Quincey Morris. She is not happy with Lucy saddling her with one of her suitors. It has delayed her trip already and she is worried about Jonathan. The letter from the nuns at the convent had not given her much information other than Jonathan was sick. Although she feels guilty for leaving Lucy behind, she belongs at Jonathan's side. 

Once at his side, he will recover and they shall marry. She does not need a guide or a chaperone, especially not one in the form of such a rough fellow as Quincey Morris. Yet there is no one else and she had agreed to it because she had not wanted to worry Lucy when she was so ill. 

When she returns home, Mina believes that she will be a married woman. She can only hope that she will return home to find Lucy in good health again, preparing for her own wedding to her beloved Arthur. 

* * *

The journey to Buda-Pesth is a long and tiring one. Quincey finds himself constantly wondering why Lucy felt the need to send him along with her friend. Mina Murray is not a shy and retiring flower, she is a very strong and capable woman. She is the type of woman that he would truly wish to bring him to his mother, a woman who could survive his world. She is more than just a pretty bauble. And he feels horrible for comparing her to Lucy. 

Somewhere during the journey, Miss Murray had become friendly towards him. Her coldness had eased as she took comfort in a friendly face. And he has become worried as he has learned more about the letter that prompted her to go to her fiancé. 

From what he knows the letter is sparse on details, it has only told Miss Murray where Harker is and that the man has become gravely ill with a brain fever. He fears that their journey has become a fool's quest. He doubts that Miss Murray, no matter how capable and strong she is, will stand by Harker's side to join in matrimony with him. 

Although he keeps his counsel to himself, Quincey suspects that Miss Murray shares his fears. 

* * *

The convent is a barbaric and dirty place. Mina shudders when she and Mr. Morris are escorted to Jonathan's bed. She reaches out to him and their hands briefly connect. He squeezes her hand gently, giving her silent strength as they walk along a stone hallway that seems to be filthy from centuries of grime and dirt. The nun that they follow speaks in such heavily accented English that Mina can barely understand more than one or two words. Somehow Mr. Morris is able to carry on a conversation with the nun and it is through his words that she gathers some idea of Jonathan's health. 

When they stop in front of a door, it feels as if her heart is in her mouth. She is afraid to open the door. It is Mr Morris' gentle touch on her lower back that propels her forward. In that moment, she knows she will be forever grateful to him. 

The door swings open and Mina feels as if she has fallen in a nightmare. 

The man thrashing on the bed does not resemble her Jonathan at all. His matted hair is a dirty grey colour, his face has several cuts upon, his limbs thrash upon the bed in a mad dance. This man is not her elegant and refined Jonathan. 

Her mouth emits a sound as she turns towards Quincey Morris and presses her face into his chest. His arms wrap around her as he pulls her out of the room. She cannot make sense of his words but the stern tone of them comfort her. He is asking all of the questions that she cannot. 

"Surely that poor man in there is not Jonathan Harker." 

 

* * *

He had found a doctor who was able to give Jonathan Harker some barbaric medicine that will keep him calm. Although Quincey has his doubts about transporting Jonathan from Buda-Pesth to England, he agrees with Mina that her fiancé would be better treated at him in the care of Jack Seward. Although Mina is still strong, he can see her strength crumbling daily as they care for Jonathan. 

The man seems to be calmer in the day, albeit a former shadow of his self. Mina waits on him in the train and cares for him. Jonathan Harker looks like a normal invalid. The daylight hours hide his secrets for all to see. Once the sun set, Quincey sends Mina away and his work begins. Jonathan becomes a crazed man, despite the medication, once the sun sets. Mina's face still bears a bruise of Jonathan's madness. 

Although Quincey voices words of hope for Mina's sake, he doubts that Jack or his mentor will be able to save Jonathan Harker. For some reason he dreads the idea of Mina in the mourning clothes that proper English society will demand she wear. Jonathan Harker may live but he will be considered as good as dead by polite society. As such Mina will don the clothes of a widow.

It's an image that Quincey has no desire to see. Somehow it hurts him more than the thought of returning to England in a few days and finding that Lucy has lost her fight with her illness. 

 

* * *

 

"His words are full of lunacy," Quincey tells Jack. "He claims that the Count that he was sent out to assist is a monster. A man who drinks blood, who has three young murderous brides who also drink blood."

Jack looks at him in confusion.

"The ravings that would fall out of his mouth at night were horrific. He claims that this Count had supernatural powers, that he could change his appearance at will, climb walls and that he thrived on blood." 

"Somehow blood has become a mania for him," Dr. Van Helsing replies from across the room. "Somehow he has become obsessed with blood and this Count." 

"I have seen this Count with my own eyes, for he has visited Miss Murray to pay his respects for her loss," Jack says. "And he is nothing more than a man. There is nothing that is unnatural about him." 

"And you Quincey, did you also see him with your own eyes?" Dr. Van Helsing calmly asks. 

"I did and as Jack said, he is a normal man. A man of wealth who felt that his homeland was mired in centuries long past," Quincey replies. 

"He feels guilt for Jonathan's illness but he is nothing more than a man who wished to join the modern era."

"I believe that Jonathan's fever is the result of his madness," Dr. Van Helsing slowly says. "I do not believe that this Count, whatever his motivations, has harmed Jonathan intentionally or unintentionally. Miss Murray has allowed me to read Jonathan's diaries from his travel. I fear that Jonathan was exposed to his illness long before he reached the Count."

"Do you believe that he can be cured?" Quincey asks. 

"Nein," Dr. Van Helsing replies in German. 

Quincey hates himself for feeling a stab of some other emotion than sadness. He hates himself for thinking that now Mina and Jonathan will never be allowed to marry. Jonathan deserves a better fate than the asylum but his fate means that Mina is now free. 

* * *

Lucy is starting to recover from her strange illness. Dr. Van Helsing was not able to identify it clearly but he was able to treat it. She only wishes that the man could save Mina's beloved Jonathan. She hates the fact that she can plan her own wedding to Arthur while Mina is forced into half-mourning even though Jonathan is still very much alive. Although Lucy does feel that the grey, lavender and mauve colours that Mina is allowed to wear suit her dark colouring, it does not seem fair that Mina must mourn for a man who is still alive. 

She seeks out Quincey for the truth since neither Arthur nor Jack will speak to her, claming her to be too delicate. Mina keeps silent upon the topic of Jonathan and Lucy fears that she is losing her dearest friend, a woman whom she loves as a sister. 

"Quincey, you once promised me that you would give me anything that my heart desires, does that promise hold true?" Lucy asks when she comes upon Quincey in her father's study. 

"Of course, darling girl," Quincey replies. 

His voice is lacking the devotion that it once held, his words are merely rote. Her heart breaks for a selfish moment. She loves her Arthur but she loved being the object of Quincey's affections. Still this is not about her, this is about Mina and Jonathan.

"Then I wish you to speak true in this moment," Lucy tells him. "Will you do so?" 

"Yes." 

She smiles at him. Somehow she knew that he would be the one who would tell her the truth no matter how distasteful it may be. 

"Will Jonathan recover from his illness?" Lucy asks. 

"Dr. Van Helsing and Jack do not believe that he will." 

"And what of your opinion?" Lucy asks. 

"My opinion hardly matters," Quincey replies with a sigh. "But since I first laid eyes on him in that convent, I have had my doubts." 

"Do you think that he will recover enough for him to marry Mina?" 

A look of sheer horror crosses Quincey's face before he turns away from Lucy. For a moment, Lucy worries that he won't answer him. 

"No matter the state of Mr. Harker's health, I do not believe that he will ever be strong enough to marry." 

She wishes to push for more information, but she knows that Quincey's promise to give her anything she desires will not allow for her morbid curiosity. 

"Thank you Quincey for being honest with me," Lucy says. "I just wish that things were different for poor Mina." 

"I do as well," Quincey quietly says. 

* * *

He finds her in an ornamental garden. She is dressed in a lovely lavender gown, if not of the black trimming the outfit he would have no idea that she was in mourning. There is a part of him that wishes he had met her first, that he had claimed her as his own. She is far too young, too lovely to be touched by such sadness. 

"Lucy has told me that the Count has paid you a visit." 

She turns to face him and for a moment the look on her face is one of joy. It fades away as her gaze falls downward. He curses fate for being a cruel mistress. 

"Yes, he felt that he was partly to blame for both Jonathan's and Renfield's poor health." 

Quincey stands near her, as close as society allows, with his hands folded behind his back. He knows that Arthur snobbishly blames the commonality of the two men's blood for their descent into madness. He does not know what he blames. Yet a part of him is horribly gratefully to whatever caused the illness in Jonathan Harker. He hates that part of him. 

"He feels somehow responsible since it was his need that called both men out to him, out to where they contracted their illness." 

Quincey stays silent. He does not voice his opinion that Renfield was a crazy coot long before he started his travel towards the East and the Count. Jonathan is a poor soul who Dr. Van Helsing believes picked up some rare disease. Due to poor conditions, his disease was allowed to bloom until it destroyed the man. 

"The Count has generously given me a pension to live on since I shall not have Jonathan as a husband." 

"He is a very generous man," Quincey says. 

He has met this Count only a handful of times and he does not like the man. There is something about him that rubs Quincey the wrong way. Perhaps it is the fact that he cannot tell how hold the man is. The Count appears to be of an indeterminate age, anywhere from thirty to seventy. Perhaps it is the fact that the Count speaks with such an oddly accented tongue in such an archaic version of English. Or perhaps it is the way that he looks at both Lucy and Mina so covetously as if both of the women are his to possess and he is only biding his time. 

Quincey knows it is all nonsense; no doubt his opinions are coloured by Jonathan's madness during the journey from Buda-Pesth to England. Jonathan's nightly descent into madness meant that the man would often rant about the Count and his insidious evil. Quincey knows that the Count is merely a man from a country that is quite backwards in both it's idea and it's moral. No doubt, the Count merely looks upon Mina and Lucy as some men at home look upon the daughters of the Apache Indians. 

Still he does not like the fact that the Count has given her a pension. 

"Yes he is a very generous man," Mina says. 

Her voice is troubled and it pains him. Quincey steps forward, closer than polite society on either side of the ocean would allow an unmarried man and an unmarried woman to be. He places his fingers under her chin and raises her chin until she is looking him in the eye. 

"What has he done?" Quincey demands. 

His tone is jealous and angry. Until this moment he has not realized the depth of his emotion for this young woman, He was a fool to be blinded by Lucy's golden prettiness when Mina's strong beauty was always before him.

"Nothing improper," Mina quietly replies. "Nothing improper at all." 

"We have been truthful with one another since we started our journey towards Jonathan, have we not?" 

Mina nods in response, she takes a step backward and then another until her back is pressed against a tree. 

"If we were honest with one another then, why are you lying now?" Quincey demands. 

He steps forward again until he is dangerously close to Mina. He would do anything to protect this woman. The Count may not be the monster that Jonathan raves he is, but Quincey does not doubt that the Count is a monster of some sort. 

"I am not," Mina insists. 

Quincey leans forward, one hand covers her hand that is nervously bunching her lavender coloured skirts and his other hand moves to the back of her neck. His touch is gentle but his demand still lingers in the air between them. 

"How can it be improper for him to ask me for my hand in marriage?" Mina spits out. "How can it be improper for him to ask me if I will allow him to care for me when Jonathan cannot?" 

It's not improper and he's sure that Lucy would be over the moon to find out that her darling friend has a chance at becoming a member of the aristocracy, no matter how backward the Count's country of origin.

"It's not improper at all." 

"But?" Mina asks, prompting Quincey to speak his mind. 

"But it would be drightfully improper of you to play with the Count when you already possess another man's heart." 

"We both know that the chances of Jonathan recovering enough for me to marry are slim. Dr. Van Helsing has suggested that I move forward with my life instead of patiently waiting. He has told me that life is far too short and that I should grab at life instead of locking myself away as a widow," Mina tells him. 

She looks away from him but does not push him away. When he strokes the back of her neck with his calloused fingers, she shuts her eyes. 

"I was not speaking of your former fiancé, Mina. I think you know this." 

She opens her eyes in surprise just as Quincey leans forward and chastely kisses her. He pulls away with a look of hope in his eyes. 

"But, I thought you loved Lucy. She has told me..." Mina begins. "Never mind the rubbish that Lucy has told me." 

"Lucy is a romantic girl, a delightful girl but she is not the girl that I love," Quincey tells her.

"You know that this is improper?" Mina asks. 

"Yes but I only want your promise that once you shed this foolish mourning that you will not bind yourself to another man without first allowing me a chance to win your heart." 

"There will be no need for you to have a chance." 

Quincey pulls away from her, his body feels numb at her words. It's not until she catches him with a slim hand wrapped around his wrist. 

"Quincey!" Mina exclaims. "You misunderstand me. There is no need for you to have a chance when you have already won your prize." 

He turns towards her hopeful that he has heard her correctly. 

"Mrs. Westerna insists that it is only proper that I mourn Jonathan since polite society is not to know of the nature of his illness. She insists that I wear these clothes to mourn for what might have been. Had I the ability to choose, would shun these clothes and marry you tomorrow." 

It is her turn to kiss him. 

* * *

They are married in 1894. They have made no real decision as to where they will live although Lucy pleads with the married couple that they return to England after their honeymoon to America. Their friends see them off and secure a promise that after their two month long tour of Quincey's homeland, they will return before making any decisions. 

The news that Quincey reads in the newspaper as he waits for Mina to dress for supper distress him. Although it is vague, the discovery of several bloodless bodies of young woman in London distresses him. He wishes to always make Mina happy but he fears that a plague of some sort is stalking the streets of London. He does not want to take her back to a country where illness might be running rampant in two months' time. His young bride has seen far too much sadness in her life. 

He pushes the newspaper away when Mina enters the sitting room, dressed in a lovely crimson gown. Quincey decides to not to worry about what their future holds. 

"Mrs. Morris, you look lovely." 

Mina smiles at him. Even as a shadow seems to linger in the room between them.


End file.
